Dancing into 2025

Like my lovely Mum showed me

My Mum is in a care home. It’s not what you’d expect from a care home really, I mean yes, certain aspects of it are but the foyer looks like a 5 star hotel and the main feeling I experience when I go to visit her is one of joy, of purpose of light. Not joy that she has dementia and needs to be in such a place instead of at home of course, but joy to see how liberated she is, which sounds silly when her brain is deteriorating at the behest of a degenerative disease, but to see her giving zero shits, taking great pleasure from the simple things in life and truly enjoying being in the present moment, that is a wonderous sight to behold and is perhaps the best lesson that I or anybody can take into 2025.

One of the things my Mum’s home excels at is their schedule of activities. They have a fun filled plethora of activities for the residents to join in with on a weekly basis and on the run up to Christmas on a daily basis! Singers, ukelele bands, school choirs, country and western extravagansa’s (complete with stetsons and neck bandanas, whatever they are called? Let me know in the comments if you know.

The staff run themselves ragged but they never let on, as their joy, passion and desire to see the residents have fulfilling, meaningful and happy experiences is evident whenever I visit, but throughout this first festive season for my Mum, a time that could have been incredibly challenging for our family, they have excelled themselves and I will be forever grateful for their undoubtedly divine calling into the roles that they fulfil there.

The inspiration for this post came from a video that my Dad just shared with me after visiting Mum today. There was a singer doing a turn, Phoenix Nights club singer style, God bless him for sacrificing his time and talent and the joy he brings to that place and those residents and staff alike. Mum was on her feet dancing from beginning to end and I tell you what, for someone with her condition, she certainly still has the moves like Jagger, even Shakira would be envious of those hip wiggles!

As much as I’d love to share that video so you can see the enjoyment and sheer liberation oozing out of my Mums fingertips, like little rays of light bursting out of her all over, I wont as its deeply personal and also has other residents in the background, however I invite you to close your eyes and imagine a world where you no longer sweat the small stuff. Where you can leave behind your worries and often unimportant life grind tasks and loose yourself in the dulcet tones of Brandon and his rendition of Sweet Caroline. Where you can completely set yourself free with gay abandon (not sure if I’m allowed to say that but its the best way to describe it) and truly dance like nobody’s watching.

This is the lesson, one of many that my lovely mamma and her dementia have taught me over the last couple of years, that I will be taking into 2025 with me, but I won’t be simply taking it forward, I’ll be dancing it in with all the hip swinging gusto I can muster and I invite you to do the same. Stay up till midnight if you feel able and dance into 2025 (ironically a recent study has shown that dancing can reduce the onset of dementia by 70%) perhaps if Mum had known this, she would have danced all the more but that wasn’t her purpose, her purpose was to show us the way, to teach us that life truly is better when you’re dancing.

So dance tonight and into 2025 for yourselves, dance for your loved ones, dance for Vanda, dance for the staff all over the country at care homes and hospitals caring for our families and friends, dance for the sheer joy it brings, dance, dance, DANCE!

Love you Mum, Happy New Year x